Talking about death: how a father and brother found solace in the ‘living graveyard’ of an airline disaster

The scene of the crash of Ethiopian Airlines flight ET302, which killed 157 people, near the town of Bishoftu, south-east of Addis Ababa, in 2019. Photograph: Tiksa Negeri/Reuters

It was, says Teboho Edkins, “a film I didn’t want to make”. On 10 March 2019, Edkins’ brother, Max, was among the 157 people killed when Ethiopian Airlines flight ET302 crashed minutes after taking off from Addis Ababa airport.

For Teboho, making a documentary about the disaster seemed impossible: “It’s not a sexy subject. At first, I really didn’t want to do it at all.”